Empty Nest

IMDb: 5.2

1988

min

Empty Nest is an American sitcom that originally aired on NBC from 1988 to 1995. The series was created as a spin-off of The Golden Girls by creator and producer Susan Harris. For its first three seasons, Empty Nest was one of the year’s top 10 most-watched programs. It was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions in association with Touchstone Television.

The show concept borrowed some elements from the British comedy series Father, Dear Father, also featuring a father living with his two daughters and large dog. However, unlike that series, the two daughters in Empty Nest are self-supporting adults, and the lead character is a widower.

Empty Nest was part of NBC’s Saturday night block of programming, and during its first four seasons it aired at 9:30pm ET, directly following The Golden Girls.

Two of the cast were alumni from one of Susan Harris’ earlier shows, Soap; Mulligan was Manoff’s father-in-law in Soap.

Soap

IMDb: 7.6

1977

min

Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 into 1981. The show was created as a night-time parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show’s story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such as alien abduction, demonic possession, murder, and kidnapping.

In 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazine’s “100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME,” and in 2010, the Tates and the Campbells ranked at number 17 in TV Guide’s list of “TV’s Top Families”.

The show was created, written, and executive produced by Susan Harris, and also executive produced by Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas. Each returning season was preceded by a 90-minute retrospective of the previous season. Two of these retrospectives were made available on VHS in 1994.

The show aired 85 episodes over the course of four seasons. The final four episodes of the series aired as one-hour episodes during the original run on ABC. These hour-long episodes were later split in two, yielding 93 half-hour episodes for syndication.

All episodes are currently available on region 1 DVD in four separate box sets. In the past, the series has rerun on local syndicated channels as well as on cable on Comedy Central and TV Land. It ran on over-the-air television on Antenna TV, until December 30th, 2012.

The Golden Palace

IMDb: 6

1992

min

The Golden Palace is an American sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 18, 1992, to May 14, 1993. The show is a spin-off of the sitcom The Golden Girls, continuing the story from that series. CBS cancelled the spin-off in 1993 after one season.

The Golden Girls

IMDb: 7.2

1985

min

The Golden Girls is an American sitcom, created by Susan Harris, that originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida.